Lacquer fight! Lacquer fight!

[Jerry Cohen]

This is very interesting and confirms a recent experience.
A few days ago I had a brief chance to work on a 4 year old Steinway S
(NY).
The hammers were very soft everywhere (from bass to high treble), and
even with some test stabs, it felt like no lacquer was ever applied to
these hammers. But the piano had plenty of brilliance and no need to add
any more. 
The piano had a few zingers, and with just a few stabs directly at the
string striking points, the zings disappeared, but the brilliance
remained. I have never seen hammers respond so quickly and precisely.

The piano was in a retail store, and was already sold. I had less than 2
hours before the movers were coming, and that included time for tuning.
This S sounded more like and L (except in the deep bass). I wish I had
more time to work on it. There was not even time to file the hammers.

This experience raises the following question. With new Steinway (NY)
hammers, you cannot needle up to achieve brilliance since there is no
"battery". The traditional Steinway method is to add lacquer (3:1
strength). But perhaps it is best to just play the piano for a year and
see what happens. If this S is any indication, wow, what a gorgeous tone
and enormous pallete. Does anyone have experience with new S&S (NY)
hammers without lacquer? Would the cotton ball sound for the 1st year be
too painful?

Jerry Cohen


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of David Love
Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2004 8:32 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Lacquer fight! Lacquer fight!
I also agree with Willis that the hammer, at least this type of hammer,
should be
played in, or allowed to develop naturally as much as possible before
applying hardeners.  I do have some customers who prefer a softer/darker
type of sound that the NY Steinway hammer gives, that also have a fear
of
the type of tone that lacquer will produce.  In one such case, while I
did
put a very weak 5:1 solution on the upper range of the instrument (Model
D), after 50 - 100 hours of playing (in her case, about one month), the
hammers developed very nicely and at this point--two or three years
later--the piano has plenty of "power", a beautiful round tone and broad
tonal palette.  The voicing I do consists mainly of maintaining the
shape
of the hammer and light crown needling.  While the Steinway hammers of a
few years ago were such puffballs that they would never have developed,
the
ones I am seeing today have a much better consistency.  It is
unfortunate
that many players have come to expect instant tone with the piano and
don't
have the patience to allow things to develop more naturally.  Those type
of
hammers, to my ear, produce the most satisfying tone. 

David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net